Monthly Archives: April 2014

Congratulations to all involved in the third annual ShowMe Nature GK12 Research Symposium held on April 26 in collaboration with the BGreen environmental literacy program!

One hundred and twenty-seven students shared posters based on their mini-grant funded research projects with proud family members, teachers, graduate fellows, undergraduate interns and MU faculty.

The research conducted by these talented young scientists included modeling the spread of disease at Paxton Keeley Elementary, discovering the life history of butterflies at New Haven Elementary, creating an aquaponics system at Ridgeway Elementary, observing where different kinds of microbes live at Midway Heights Elementary, documenting biodiversity at Rock Bridge Elementary, and much more! Midway students discovered that most bacteria are helpful and even found a new one lurking in the schoolyard. Lee students became environmental engineers, designing and constructing Hugelkulturs (H-K’s)—an ancient form of permaculture. They found that miniature H-K’s kept their houseplants alive when the heat went off in their trailer classroom on the coldest night of the year. In addition to the posters, students engaged the audience in their research through QR codes that linked to student-designed science webpages, examples of their study organisms (including butterflies, plants, and microbes), 3-D models of their experiments, and activities that challenged the audience to be the scientist!!

The Symposium was followed by a keynote presentation given by Dr. Doug Ladd, a renowned conservation biologist and Director of Conservation for the Missouri Nature Conservancy. It was a full morning of celebrating the 2013-14 year of science learning and discovery in our GK12 and BGreen classrooms!

If you are interested in exploring student research projects in more detail, check them out at the Virtual Research Symposium.